(no subject)

[pengwern]

Moderate to high panicked beeping over the jjwxc ban/purge preemptive movements - not that I haven't seen those posts about fandom history but this is a) one I'm experiencing firsthand and b) tied to .....generally not good trends over there, and certainly in response to Taiwan's recent ruling (which, on its own, *\o/*). There was the BL author jailed for publishing her works last year, several previous purges getting rid of explicit scenes, incest, polyamory, all those censor boxes nibbling at the texts uploaded to the site - a long, long history of literary inquisitions --- ANYWAY I need to look up and save all the novels I care about, especially those under the umbrella of m/m Eastern Fantasy/Generic Historicals, which is ....not an insignificant amount.....

So over the past year I've been smushing myself into CN webnovels as a proto-bog mummy sinks into the peat! Most of what I've read is published on Jin Jiang, a fic platform with majority female audience/authors, in contrast to places like Qidian which appeals to the straight boys, which I'm sure has nothing to do with this ban. Although I can't claim to have a panoramic understanding of the current State of the Webnovel in the sinosphere (???) because I mostly care about the fantasy or generic historical genres, I am more familiar with it than I was two years ago. Enough to be glad I have the ability to access them, and enough to mourn the stifled works that would have been. But also, what a good thing I didn't find these until recently because I would have read my eyes blind even earlier.

Actually, never mind: it's extremely serious. The amount of topics permitted is...low. I need to find a way to download texts/open up text files without the characters coming out as gibberish. ...I was hoping for motivation to kickstart my accumulated Notes On Chinese Webnovels but not.....I had so many favorites! There are tons of excellent fic. 

Comments

[vass]

Shit. I'm so sorry. This is extremely fucked up.

Re downloading the texts you care about and opening up the text files without the characters coming out as gibberish... if you have any saved already, I can try to talk you through troubleshooting the character issues? Windows, Mac, or Linux?

Re downloading the texts you don't have already... I really hope someone, or several someones, scraped the site. It seems likely they would have, there's enough Chinese-speaking women in tech that some of them have to read Chinese webnovels and have seen this coming and wanted to help. I guess if they did, the problem there is finding a way to distribute the backups that won't put the authors at further risk? :(

[pengwern]

There seems to be plenty of txt files around, >_> but the things is, there are so many more works evaporating before my eyes. I tried opening the files I found in Word on a different computer and it worked, so maybe it is something about having the right fonts downloaded? TY though! I'm hoping those mirrors don't get purged either.

I'm here going on while people are getting their livelihoods ripped up by the root, but one of the fics I'm following is SO! CLOSE! to the end, and having them getting their grand happy ending! when they can drive into the distance. (driving being a euphemism like lemons that I found charming before this)

And it's not only jjwxc affected; Qidian, with its majority guy readers apparently had 1.2 million works purged on the 23rd, with the site slathered in banners going "positive energy, create a new style for the 70th anniversary!"

...should probably figure out what my tumblr email was, a thing I've been putting off for three months >_

[vass]

That's good that the mirrors exist.

I tried opening the files I found in Word on a different computer and it worked, so maybe it is something about having the right fonts downloaded?

Yeah, that's the first thing I'd have suggested trying. If that doesn't work on your first computer, the next step is checking if Word (or whatever else you want to read the files in) knows where to look for the new fonts. And if it's a text editor, not a word processor (particularly an old text editor) it'll need to support UTF-8, not just ASCII, but Word's fine with that.

I'm hoping those mirrors don't get purged either.

I hope so too.

I'm here going on while people are getting their livelihoods ripped up by the root, but one of the fics I'm following is SO! CLOSE! to the end, and having them getting their grand happy ending! when they can drive into the distance. (driving being a euphemism like lemons that I found charming before this)

It sounds shitty for everyone. Except, presumably, powerful old male politicians who don't like escapist literature because it allows people to escape. :(

...should probably figure out what my tumblr email was, a thing I've been putting off for three months >_

I'd been wondering where you were!

[sovay]

Actually, never mind: it's extremely serious.

I am in the wrong fandoms to have seen that this was happening, so thank you for the heads-up.

[pengwern]

It's...a little distressing to go from "so much fun melodramatic intrigue \o/" to 'these authors are being told "don't think you'll be lucky enough to get away with anything that crosses the line"' in the span of a few months.

[minutia_r]

Oh no! I bounced off the only Chinese webnovel I ever tried--it might have been a translation issue, but it was a very unfamiliar and--to me--off-putting writing style. Nevertheless it's been an amazing explosion of creativity and it's awful to see it suppressed like this. I hope the authors are okay, although realistically speaking, I know not all of them will be.

On another note, though, I'm glad to see you posting again, even if it is on such a shitty subject! I've noticed that you haven't been around much, and I've been meaning to drop you a line to see if everything was okay with you.

[pengwern]

(WHOOPS SORRY I forgot to check) \o/ I am as floppy as a salted fish currently <3

Right now I'm just watching kind of worriedly for any high profile cases that pop up >:( REGARDLESS, the webnovels themselves are,,,it wouldn't be wrong to think of them as fic, due to the trope/genre conventions and the internet where they're posted, so they definitely have their own weird lingo sometimes. But it might not be the lingo! It might be how chinese tends to come out ultravioletly purple when directly translated, or how genuinely terrible the worldview of some authors....;-; they're so bad with consent sometimes! It's early yaoi all over again (admittedly some written from that ancient era)

If I ever wanted to recommend books only a handful would pass through my hand without reservations or warning list, but I do have some \o/

[minutia_r]

What the heck, you're a person of exquisite taste, I will happily accept some recommendations! But I'm a bit swamped with Hugo reading and whatnots at the moment, so I'm not sure when I'd get around to reading them.

[pengwern]

:o

\o/ (any gems this year)

I don't have a proper list of recs (both good AND with finished translations) but

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/fox-demon-usurping-the-throne-daily/ Short fic with A Fox Who Wants To Usurp The Throne, exactly what it says on the tin!

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/i-ship-my-adversary-x-me/
Incomplete translation, but a beautifully hilarious celebrity culture gay romance, where the main character finds out about the rpf fandom with him and his (manufactured) rival and trips into it wholesale. Identity porn (in some ways), meta-fake-dating, social media/fandom, two disaster baby gays talking past each other but still being very happy in each other's company, mutual pining, have I mentioned they're both very dumb and that the main character's mental monologue kills me.
The author's prose is charming, and its translation excellent in modulating the memes/metaphors and localising to western fandom idioms. Also I feel I should warn for like chinese typical attitudes of blaseness towards -- a whole bunch of stuff, starting with the RPS? I don't have any rl rpf fandoms so it might be stepping on a whole bunch of landmines for western fans?

[To explain in a non-exaggerated manner, in the vast environment of the entertainment industry, he was the moon in the clouds, and the flowers beside the pond, while I was just a little yellow cabbage on the ground.]

[minutia_r]

I quite liked Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver, and really liked Mary Robinette Kowal's The Calculating Stars. Also I am kicking myself for not reading Martha Wells' Murderbot stories earlier?

I also have been liveblogging my reading over at my other tumblr, the one with my real name on it, if you're interested?

Thank you for the recs! I don't know when I'll have the chance to read them, but who doesn't like fox spirits who usurp the throne daily.

[pengwern]

Aw, I was hoping to go find some of these at the library, but I have STILL not made it there SO:

When We Were Starless IS lovely, I love forlorn robots carrying out their tasks far into the future. I see spinning silver continues the trend of not going for the obvious f/f pairing with chemistry ;-; Trail of Lightning I've heard about, and it sounds fun! And of the ones I have read, I also enjoyed Murderbot, and am hoping for the time when an anthology of them comes out! Have you seen all those Yuletide stories with cats and fandom collections, because that was a niche genre I didn't know I wanted.